Reunions
by Anthony R Brown
Summary: Neal Cassidy arrives in Storybrooke, but he is more than Emma knows. Swanfire with a little non romantic SwanQueen.


REUNIONS

Emma heard the door open and glanced over to see who entered. Timed stopped for her...

Snow White also looked to see who entered Granny's. She saw a pleasant faced man with black slightly curly hair. He took one step into the diner and stopped, frozen in his tracks. She realized that his attention was fixed on her daughter.

Henry was just getting busy with his hot chocolate when he realized that Granny's had gone completely silent. Then he noticed that Emma was standing like a statue looking toward the door. At the door was a strange man who was also standing like a statue. After a few moments he said, "Emma?"

Henry's voice snapped Emma out of her trance. She marched over to Neal and without any preliminary hit him. Not a slap but a full-on punch in the face. Neal recoiled but didn't retreat. Emma drew back her fist for a second blow, but her father intercepted her arm. Emma struggled with him briefly but then relaxed. Taking a deep breath she turned to her mother.

"Get Henry out of here." Snow White didn't hesitate for a moment but grabbed Henry's arm and pulled him to the back exit.

Henry wanted to stay, but something in Emma's voice and his grandmother's immediate action convinced him to go without protest. _Maybe Grams knows something I don't_.

No longer quiet as a church, the diner was now bedlam. Everyone was talking at once.

Charming said to the stranger, "Who the hell are you?"

But the man's attention was still directed to Emma. "Emma" he now said.

Emma still felt like kicking the living daylights out of Neal. But, instead, she started crying. She was mortified. Crying in front of all these people. She couldn't stop. The sobs just kept coming as all the pictures she had once held in mind returned. Tallahassee. A cheap motel room with a family's abandoned dream catcher. 'All I really want is you,' he had said. Betrayed to the police. Pregnant in jail. Never finding even a hint of him. _And now he is right in front of me ... Henry … oh, Henry_.

Charming had no idea what was happening, but when Emma broke into tears, he knew what to do.

Emma was suddenly being held. It was her father. She looked at his face through her tears and saw only love and concern. She had never felt this way. His arms seemed to engulf her, but with only the greatest tenderness. Despite all the hurt and bitterness in her right now, Emma had an insight. _So this is what it means to have a father._

The door opened again and, of all people, Mr. Gold entered. As one everyone stopped talking and looked at him.

"We'll don't stop the party because of me, dearies," Gold started, sarcastic as usual, but he also stopped when he noticed the stranger. Gold's gaze took in everything about the man.

Baelfire stared at the man he had not seen for close to twenty years. _I wanted all this … just not in the first five minutes_.

"Papa," he said and rushed to embrace Rumpelstiltskin. Slowly Rumpelstiltskin returned the embrace. Tears formed in _his_ eyes, and he said softly, "Bae?"

Along with everyone else in the diner, Emma had observed this last bit. In spite of the anger raging inside her, she didn't begin to understand what Neal was doing.

"Neal. What are you doing? How can you know Mr. Gold?" Emma disengaged from her father.

Neal and Gold turned to face Emma. She was further astonished to see that each had tears in his eyes. Suddenly, Emma felt faint. She sat on one of the stools as the bar. "Ruby. I need a drink … whiskey."

Prince Charming wanted some answers, and he was not going to interrogate his daughter. "What's going on, Gold?" he demanded.

Gold, it seemed had been struck dumb. With his irritation increasing by the second, Charming turned to the stranger. "Okay, _you_ start talking." He let his hand drift toward his holster.

Turning his gaze to Emma, Neal began. "Emma and I met in Oregon eleven years ago. We started going together. I got into a scrape, and Emma helped me get out of it. But I betrayed her to the police, and abandoned her. I wanted to go back to her, but stayed away until a friend sent me word that Emma had broken the Curse. I'm here now to try and repair our relationship." After a slight pause he added, "if possible." Then he also said, "Emma knows me as Neal Cassidy."

Emma wanted to scream at Neal. But two things he said stopped her. "How" she started, but was overridden by Gold.

"How could you know of the Curse?" Rumpelstiltskin demanded.

"This same _friend_," this time he pronounced the word with a sneer, "told me all about It. And about Emma's being the savior. He convinced me that removing myself from her life was necessary for her to save this town." He looked Emma directly in her eyes. "For a long time now, I have realized that his solution to the problem was not the best. I am so sorry that I went along with his plan. Not a day has gone by that I haven't regretted it."

"Then why are you only now coming to me?" Emma asked softly.

"Because I couldn't be sure that I wouldn't make things worse. I knew you would think me insane if I told you the truth. I had to stick to my promise not to contact you. I had gone too far down that path to see a way back. Until now." Neal had stepped closer to Emma while he spoke.

In response Emma said nothing, but she wet the end of a napkin in water, and gently wiped the blood from Neal's face. After a slight pause, she said, "He was August, wasn't he?" Neal nodded.

At this the diner again erupted. "August?" "The stranger?" were just two of the sentiments that Emma could make out. She held up her hand to silence them.

"August was a refugee from your land," she said to the crowd. "You knew him as Pinocchio. He came through the wardrobe with me. He told me …"

Emma was cutoff in mid sentence, not by one but by four people simultaneously. Her father, Ruby, Granny and, of all people, Leroy. Since they shouted each other down mutually, her father held up his hand, the others stopped, and he said very angrily, "She told us the wardrobe could only take ONE. How did Pinocchio and Emma both use it?" The diner, once again was a cacophony of noise.

It was Gold, amazingly, who put a stop to it. In a commanding voice he said, "That is a very interesting question, Dearies, but it takes us away from the main point. Table it until later." In the ensuing silence he said to Baelfire, "Continue the tale."

Again addressing Emma, Neal said, "I was on my way to fencing the watches, when this guy chased me down and tackled me. I thought he was police, but it turned out to be just a guy with a motorcycle. And a wooden box." Emma gave him a slight nod, so he continued. " In the box he showed me something, a drawing that only I would recognize. Then I knew he was telling me a truth, and that he knew who I was. So he convinced me to do what he wanted." When Emma made no response to any of this he went on. "It was only much later that I considered that he had not given me the whole truth; that he had manipulated me to agree to his plan." He turned to Gold and said, "He knew how I felt about magic, you see, and used my fear to stampede me into agreeing with him."

Emma felt her anger leaving. She could see that once again her life had been the currency that others used to pay for their schemes. Neal's life as well. She wasn't able to forgive him ... yet, but she was beginning to see that his choices had been forced, just as hers had been. She asked in a plain voice, "What do you mean that I know you as Neal Cassidy. Isn't that your name?"

"For as long as I have been in this world, that is the name I have used. But, Emma, I am not from this world. Like you I came from the other place. Only I wasn't a baby, I was fourteen years old." When Emma seemed to have no reaction to this, he asked, "This doesn't surprise you?"

"Not really," was her reply. It fit with all the insane things she had learned the past few months.

With the grin that Emma remembered, Neal continued, "I think I can surprise you with the rest. I came to this world to escape magic. My father was a terrible practitioner of magic. I wanted him to stop, but he would not. In desperation I got him to agree to a deal," he paused for a moment. "If I could find a way for him to abandon magic safely, he would do so. I found a way. I summoned the Blue Fairy, and she gave me a magic bean, a bean that would create a portal to another world, one without magic. Father and I could go to a land without magic and his magic would be no more. But we would make a fresh start together. Am I surprising you yet?"

"Not so much. I happen to know all about portal beans. A giant friend of mine told me of them."

"Now I'm surprised. But, anyway, when the time came and I opened the portal, my father wouldn't go through with the deal. He was too afraid to abandon his magic, so he abandoned me instead."

Emma saw that as Neal said this last part, he turned to look at Gold, and, suddenly the clues seemed to fit and the situation made perfect sense. She also turned to Gold and said, "Tell me _Rumpelstiltskin_, did you make all this," she waved her hand in a big sweep, "happen so you could find your son again?"

The diner exploded into an even louder din than before.

Later, much later, Emma was alone with Snow White and Charming at Mary Margaret's place. Henry was at Regina's. Regina had heard a version of the "diner reunion," but Emma corrected the erroneous information Regina had obtained.

"I thought you told me not to worry about Henry's father. That his father didn't even know that Henry existed." Regina gave Emma one of her infamous scowls with this.

"Well it was the truth. Neal knew nothing about my being pregnant. And I could never find him after I went to jail." Emma suppressed the anger swelling up inside her again. "And I certainly didn't know anything about his connection to Gold or the Enchanted Forest. I would have thought all of that to be just insane ramblings.

"Please just have a quiet evening with Henry. I need to discuss all this with Snow and Charming and until I know what to do, I don't want Henry to learn about it piecemeal. Don't you agree?"

"Of course, but why do _they_ get a say in what to do and not me?" Regina could never refer to Emma's parents without the sneer.

"Because, most of it is about my life, not Henry's. I promise I'll discuss everything with you tomorrow before we tell Henry." Regina reacted visibly to Emma's choice of pronoun.

"We?"

"Of course, Regina. The simple fact is that we share Henry. For me, or for you, to make a decision unilaterally that affects him is wrong."

Regina said shortly, "Are you sure Henry is OK with staying? He doesn't like me much these days."

"Henry likes you just fine, Regina. He just doesn't want the Evil Queen for his mother."

With that Regina acquiesced. Emma told Henry not to pester Regina about any of this. "I promise you'll learn all about it tomorrow, but please give me one night to talk about it with your grandparents."

As she left, she heard Henry telling Regina, "You should have seen it Mom. Emma just punched that man right in the face."

Snow White had brought food home from Granny's for them. Emma began to recount her story. Even though her father had learned some of it, for Snow's benefit she started again at the beginning – or at least at her beginning.

"I aged out of foster care as soon as I could, when I was just sixteen. There was nobody I met that I wanted anything to do with. I had done well in school, but I didn't finish. I just wanted to be on my own. I convinced myself that I didn't need anybody. I mean I had never had anybody anyway. Please don't cry!" Snow White's eyes had welled up. "Now is not the time to feel sad about this, you have to know the facts. We'll cry later." Snow White gave a little laugh and wiped her eyes.

"I started stealing to get by. I did try to waitress, but couldn't stand it. And I just couldn't make much money at it. So I started living "on the street." I was actually pretty good at it. I guess it was like the time when you were living in the forest." This brought a smile from her mother.

"One day I saw a yellow VW bug in a deserted alley in Portland, Oregon. I'd always thought the 'bugs' were cool. So I decided to steal it. I broke into it and got it started and was feeling pretty good about it, when this guy popped up from the backseat. He just about gave me a heart attack. But soon I realized that he didn't own the car, he had stolen it first. Then we kind of hit it off. He was Neal." Emma actually felt herself blush when she spoke about Neal.

"We stayed together. We just had the car, but we shoplifted to get food, and sometimes we would get odd jobs so we had some cash, but mostly it was us and the car." Emma paused as she remembered Neal with her and the bug.

"One day Neal asks me if I think we should settle down somewhere, get regular jobs, and everything. I thought he was joking at first, but he had me close my eyes and point randomly at a map – it was a cheap thing in a motel room. I pointed at Tallahassee, Florida. Neal said that was where we would go. He said he didn't care where we went. He just wanted me." Tears started to form in Emma's eyes. She blinked them back. "That felt so good. I really felt wanted … for the first time in my life." Snow started to cry again.

Emma did now start crying, herself. Not sobbing but just tears. She went on, although not calmly. "Almost the next day, Neal showed me a wanted poster for him. He had stolen some expensive watches from a jewelry store in Phoenix where he had worked for a while. He thought they would have stopped looking for him by this time, but the wanted poster was from the FBI. You know about the FBI don't you?" Both Charming and Snow nodded. "Neal said he had to run away to Canada, that Tallahassee was out. I said 'OK, lets go.' But Neal said we didn't have the money to get fake passports and other stuff, that he would have to go alone." Emma stopped to gather herself for the rest.

"I wasn't going to lose him. I was determined to find a way for us to be together." Emma grew silent, but her parents said and did nothing, just waited for her to resume. After almost a full minute she did.

"I decided that I could help Neal. We would go to Phoenix and I would retrieve the watches. Neal had left them in a train station locker.

"I was so scared when I got the watches. There were a couple of cops right there in the station, and I was sure they would stop me. But I just walked right past them with a bag containing the watches. And I went back to Neal in the bug.

"The watches were beautiful. And Neal took out one and put it around my wrist. It made me feel like a princess." Snow started to sob quietly. "Nobody had ever just given me anything before, well anything of value anyway. We kissed and Neal left to go fence the watches. He made sure I knew the spot to rendezvous before we parted." Another long pause. "I was so happy. I wanted nothing more that to be with Neal for the rest of my life. I just knew it was going to happen."

Emma's voice took on a hard tone. "I deserved some happiness after the rotten childhood I had. I always was the outsider, the 'meal ticket' who nobody really wanted." Snow White now was sobbing steadily, and Charming had tears on his cheeks, but Emma just went on. "I was waiting for Neal at the spot, and, then the time passed that we had agreed on. I got anxious. Finally, I tried to call him on my phone, but got a message that his phone was disconnected. It didn't make sense. But then it did when a cop came around the corner and arrested me. He said to me, 'Your boyfriend set you up!' … That is the worst I have ever felt in my entire life. He abandoned me, just like everyone else." Emma paused and looked directly into her mother's eyes. "Just like my parents had when I was born." Snow White was sobbing hard now. Emma touched her and said. "I don't feel that way now, Mother. Please don't cry." Snow's crying got softer.

"I got eleven months for receiving stolen goods. I was still not eighteen so it was a juvenile charge, and was supposed to be expunged. Of course, Regina somehow got a hold of my record when I ran for Sheriff.

"After I had been in about two months I started getting sick in the morning every day." Snow White stopped crying and looked Emma right in the eye, and nodded. "The pregnancy test was positive, of course.

"The same day I took the test, I got a package from Thailand, of all places. No return address, just car keys, the keys to the yellow bug. This was the key chain." Emma touched her swan pendant. "Neal stole it for me from a store we robbed, because it was of a swan.

"I was so devastated that I knew I could not keep the baby. I could never provide him with the material or even the emotional needs he would have. So I gave him away right at birth. I never even held him, not even once." The tears returned to Emma's eyes. "I think that has been the worst mistake of my life. Except maybe trusting Gold." All three gave a little laugh at this.

"When I got out, I actually went to Tallahassee, and stayed for two years. I was hoping that I would find Neal there, and, at least get some explanation. I never found him, of course. But I did get some odd jobs from a bail bondsman. I sort of learned the trade. I didn't stay in Tallahassee, but I did keep working as a skip tracer. Turns out I am pretty good at finding people. I always wondered where I got that talent. Guess that's one question answered, at least." Emma gave Charming a big smile.

Charming said, "Henry seems to have inherited it too."

Snow White said, "What did you tell Henry about his father?"

"I told Henry that his father had been a firefighter who had died saving a family. I wanted Henry to think of his father as a hero. The real story, or at least what I thought was the real story, would have depressed him. Now that I know the story is much more complicated, and is tied up in all this nonsense we've been through, maybe Neal won't seem so bad."

Snow White again, "What is the _real_ story, anyway? I'm confused."

"There isn't anybody who isn't confused, as far as I can tell. Even knowing that Neal is actually Gold's son, a lot still doesn't make sense. That fact actually makes it less understandable. I need to find August and get him to fill in the gaps. He must have shown Neal something very convincing to get him to betray me. And it had to be something that I would not have believed. Otherwise August could have just shown me and told me about the Curse." Emma paused a bit. "I wish he had tried anyway. Maybe that would have prevented putting Henry's life in danger."

Emma continued, "But after today I know something that I didn't think was true. Neal did love me. It wasn't just attraction or taking advantage of a teenage girl. It seems twisted, but Neal had to think he was 'giving me my best chance' to do it." Snow White gave a thin smile at this. "We all know that 'best chance' doesn't mean 'good' chance."

Emma grew silent. When Snow White realized that Emma would not say more, she asked, "Are you still in love with Neal?" Emma didn't answer.

Baelfire followed his father into his shop. For eleven – no, almost twelve now – years he had both wanted and dreaded this. When he learned that his father, Rumpelstiltskin, had somehow come to the same world that Bae lived in, he knew that eventually they would reunite. Bae always knew that Emma would break the Curse. But he would never have left her, if Emma's only purpose was to break the Curse and set the Fairy Tale people free. He wouldn't have cared. Only Emma had mattered to him. But August showed him a drawing of the dagger! How could he have known of it. The Blue Fairy, Bae supposed.

In any event, that drawing told Bae that _Papa_ was alive and in this world. And not able to do magic. Just what Bae wanted. The only problem was that his father would not know him. If Bae traveled to Storybrooke, everyone, including his father, would just think him a stranger. No! The only way Bae could ever see his father again would be when the Curse was broken. And Bae believed August that Emma was the one to break it.

Still, Bae had reflected later, after the despicable way they treated Emma, that there were likely other paths for Emma to follow that would result in the broken Curse. He could have leveled with her. Emma would have disbelieved him, probably for a long time, but Bae was certain that eventually Emma would have believed, at least enough to go to Storybrooke. And Emma deserved to break the Curse, not for Bae's convenience, but because there were people in Storybooke who would love her, and would try to make up for the years apart. Why couldn't he and Emma be together and still break the Curse?

August's reasoning, as best Bae could reconstruct it, was that unless Bae left Emma, and in such a way to discourage Emma from seeking after him, there would be too many temptations pulling Emma away from her destiny. Even if she eventually believed, Emma might consider the risk too great. Bae supposed there was a lot of truth in that. Especially, he thought, if they had had children. What mother would put them at risk, even for the great reward promised?

At the end of the day, August may have been right. That Bae had to remove himself completely and utterly from Emma's life. Still it always felt that the particular circumstances nicely fit the plans and desires of one August Booth. Bae would find out what he could of August's connection to the Fairy Tale world.

At the present, however, there was his father to deal with.

"How long has it been for you?" Baefire asked.

"More than three centuries."

"No one can say you are not persistent. But tell me why I can feel magic here? Storybrooke is the only place in this world where I could feel magic."

"I needed to have magic in this world so I could find you, Bae."

"Is that all there is to it? There are other ways to find people in this world, Papa. I understand that Emma made her living finding people, most who didn't want to be found … Why did you think you needed magic?"

Rumpelstiltskin hesitated before replying. Then he took a deep breath and began. "Because I was afraid. I was without power in this world, I knew I would be when I created the Curse. My fear came back to me when I remembered who I was." Since Baelfire looked puzzled, he explained, "Like everyone else I had the Curse amnesia. There was no way to avoid it. But I had an escape clause. I had learned the name of Snow White and Charming's baby before the curse. I made sure her name was deeply imprinted in my mind. When Emma came to town a year ago, and I heard her speak her name, my memories came back.

"I was thrilled that the Curse had worked as intended. But I was also frightened, because when the rest of the town awoke, they would remember who I was, but I would have no way of defending myself. So I needed to bring magic to here, so I could protect myself … and look for you."

Baelfire thought that this sounded neat, but he knew that his father was telling him only a part of the story, and in such a way to paint him in the best color.

"Tell me, Papa, how many people did you hurt to make this Curse happen?"

Baelfire heard the tone that his father had always used to justify his cruelty in the reply, "Bae, Bae, this was all for you, so we could be together. Don't worry about all that."

"If you had wanted to be with me, why did you not come through the portal?"

Rumpelstiltskin seemed to becoming frantic. "I was sorry the moment the portal closed. I wished I had gone with you. But the portal wouldn't reopen. I had lost you. I wanted you back. I was so desperate to get back to you. Don't you see? I had to find a way. I would do anything. The damned Blue Fairy tried to tell me there was no way, but I saw through her. A curse, yes, a curse would do it. Would take me to where you were. But so much to do for such a curse. So many people tried to stop me, got in my way. I wouldn't have done anything to them if they hadn't tried to stop me, if they hadn't interfered. It wasn't my fault. They, all of them, made me do it."

Baelfire realized that he, himself, had been cursed from the moment that his father became the Dark One. It had all been for nothing. His whole life a waste. Emma's life a wreck because of the man standing in front of him. He hated that man.

"What did you do to get that witch, Regina, to cast the Curse. To pay the price, so you didn't have to?"

"I knew Regina could be a great witch, from the day she was born. I helped her, shaped her, to learn how powerful she could be, to rise above common people, to reach for power. And it worked. Regina was terrible in the old land. Feared far and wide. But there was her step-daughter, Snow White. Regina was so jealous of Snow White, that when Snow married Prince Charming, and they defeated her, Regina was ready for the ultimate vengeance. That was how she saw the Dark Curse. And she cast it. I succeeded. I was here, and, then, later the Curse was broken."

Baelfire thought he might be sick. But he fought it down. "But magic?"

"Oh that was the best." Rumpelstiltskin seemed to be bursting with pride. "The love between Snow White and Prince Charming is the strongest I ever found. When I mixed strands of their hair together, I created a True Love potion, something no witch or wizard had ever done. I had done it. Then I knew I could complete the Curse and come here to be with you. And I could bring magic so we would have power when we were reunited."

Baelfire had heard enough. "Stop. I don't care about the rest." Rumpelstiltskin seemed crestfallen. Baelfire continued, "If I had wanted to be with you like this, I didn't have to leave our world. I could have just learned to turn a blind eye to the evil things you did, and just enjoy the things I could have.

"I wanted my papa back, the gentle, even if frightened, man who was raising me, raising me alone after Mother left. That was the Deal, remember. You said you would give up magic, if I could find a way that didn't cost you your life. And I found it, with the portal bean. Only, you backed out of the Deal. I lost you then, and as far as I am concerned, I lost you forever."

Rumpelstiltskin looked stricken. Baelfire found that he really didn't care. "Now I've got to see Emma somehow and make sense out of all this mess you've made. Or at least to find if I can make amends for my part in it."

Rumpelstiltskin didn't even move as Baelfire left the shop.

Emma woke after a short and restless night. It was still early, but she dressed quietly and left before her parents awoke. She walked the few blocks to the Sheriff's office. When she entered, she was only half surprised to see Neal waiting. She was surprised, however, to see that he had fresh coffee and donuts waiting.

"Neal, how did you know I'd be up this early?" Even before he answered she remembered.

"Emma, you never could sleep when you were anxious about something. I didn't sleep at all, and when I smelled baking in Granny's kitchen, I went down and persuaded her to give me some. She is a character, that one, I'll tell you. But when my natural charm didn't have any effect, I mentioned that I wanted them for you. She has a real soft spot for you, Emma."

After a sip of the black coffee and a bite of a bearclaw, Emma felt a bit more relaxed. "Before I was born, but after my parents and their followers had learned that Regina was going to cast the Curse, Granny, and Red, were part of the 'War Council' that tried to find a defense. And Granny knitted my baby blanket, the only thing from that world that came with me through the wardrobe. Now I think she is going to treat me like a granddaughter."

They were both, Emma realized, trying to keep a somewhat lighthearted tone. Then she remembered how they had each been able to match moods with each other when they had been together. _How easily we fell back into that pattern_.

"Well, Neal, I don't really have much to say right now, so the floor is yours."

"My father was a weak, fearful man. I didn't care. He was still Papa. But we lived in a bad country. There was a war going on … with Ogres. Do you know what they are?" Emma nodded, and Neal continued. "The war was going badly, so our Duke started drafting children, at only fourteen years to fight, to die really, to try save his land."

As Neal recounted his story, Emma began to accept that as she had thought in the first few minutes after his arrival, that both her and Neal's lives were never theirs alone. That, of course, was not unusual, since most people had families that influenced how they grew up and what kind of people they became. But for Neal and even more for her, herself, the influences, the forces even, that had shaped their lives were wielded by people not known to them. She had recently accused Gold of making her his pawn. He had denied it, but Emma knew that she had been at least partially correct.

Neal had had an even rougher time of it, in some ways, she thought. He had seen his father transform into the formidable and frightening Dark One. _Poor Neal. How terrible must it have been to experience that_. _So bad that he went to another world to escape it. And, then, at the ultimate moment, Rumpelstiltskin had backed out. Yes, a coward._

When Neal finished, Emma had tears in her eyes, and so did Neal. Neal looked like he wanted to embrace her, but she held up her hand. "Later. Now you need to hear my tale."

Describing her life after Neal had betrayed her wasn't hard at all. And in the telling Emma felt most of her anger leave her. It was, she thought, just like talking to Snow in the nursery. Acknowledging the feelings, the resentment, the hatred, that she had held close for so many years, made them less a great weight hanging over her, and more of objects to be examined at a remove. _Maybe this is forgiveness_.

"The thing that I pushed away from me the whole time was the baby. I gave him away because I couldn't take care of him, not well anyway, but mostly because I was sure he would remind me of you. I had to get you out of my mind. It sort of worked. Only occasionally would I recall you, and, then, of course, the baby. I usually cried then, but no one ever knew. I had no friends at all. But I could at least tell myself that the boy was living a good life, so that I had really given him his 'best chance.'

"That all changed on my birthday. The doorbell rang, and there he stood. He had come to get me. With the craziest story anyone had ever heard." She paused and took a deep breath. "It all turned out to be true, of course. And now 'the other shoe has dropped.'"

Emma and Neal talked long into the night. Emma felt much of the closeness that her 17 year old self had felt with him return. She still had the anger and resentment towards and for him. But like the situation with her parents, Emma was gradually regarding it all as a kind of story – like in Henry's book. If her time in the ruined Fairy Tale Land had taught her anything, it was there was no point in indulging in the 'what ifs' or the 'could have beens.' There was only the present and the future. And Emma decided that she wanted Neal in her future.

"We've got to get some sleep, Neal," she said at last. "Tomorrow we tell Henry the whole truth."

Neal made to get up, but Emma easily pushed him back down in his chair (he was a little drunk), leaned in a gave him a kiss on the cheek. At the door she turned and looked one last time at him. The broad smile on his face was all the 'good night' that she wanted.

The next morning Snow White served Emma a large breakfast, which confirmed to Emma her mother's exquisite sense of empathy. Emma was ravenous. Henry has stayed another night at Regina's, and would be staying home from school. Emma had arranged for Neal to wait for her phone call before coming to the mansion. Emma hoped that talking to Regina and Henry first would reduce the overall confusion of the situation, and give her a chance to lessen each's fears and anxiety.

Regina answered her knock immediately and with her customary scowl. Emma resolved to show Regina the utmost courtesy, and said "Good morning. Thank you for taking care of Henry while I have tried to sort out all this mess."

Regina softened at her tone, "It was no problem, of course. Henry tried to get me to tell him anything that I knew. But since I don't know anything, it was easy to resist him." Emma answered Regina's slight smile with a small chuckle.

Henry was waiting in the living room, looking as if he had a dentist's appointment to go to.

"Henry, there is no reason to be so nervous."

"Yes, there is. Everybody is sneaking around and hiding stuff from me. Even Mom wouldn't tell me anything. I tried calling Grams, but she went all 'zen' on me and said I would 'learn what I needed to know in its own good time.' That made no sense at all."

"Well then lets get started." Emma sat down in one of the extremely comfortable arm chairs. Regina sat in her customary seat, which still reminded Emma of a throne. _Regina must be a very good curse caster to get such good furniture out of it_.

Emma began, "Here's the thing, Henry. The man who came into Granny's is a person from my past. His name is Neal Cassidy. We were very close." Emma suspected that Henry might know what she meant, but she was not going to be more explicit. "He left me very unexpectedly and in a bad situation. I had been really mad at him for doing that for a long time. And I had not seen him since he had treated me so badly until he walked in to Granny's. So I lost my head and just hit him. It was the wrong thing to do, and very childish of me. To make it worse, I did that with you watching. I apologize to you, and to you, Regina, about that. It was a very poor example of parenting. Both your Mom and I want you to know that hitting someone because you are mad at them, is not the right thing to do." Emma looked at Regina as she said this, and was rewarded with a slight nod. _Maybe this will actually give us some common ground._

Emma paused and took a deep breath. _Now for the hard part_. "I have to apologize for a second time also, Henry. I told you a very big lie." Henry straightened and looked at her with wide eyes. "I told you your father was a fireman who died a hero saving a family. That isn't true. I just told you that so you would have a good feeling about him." Emma sneaked a peek at Regina, who had a curious look on her face. _I thing she knows what I'm gong to say_. "Your father was no fireman, and no hero. He treated me very badly and left me when I need him the most."

"My father's not dead!?"

"No, but when I told you that he could have been. I had never seen him since he left me, … left us."

"He left you when you were pregnant?"

"To be fair, he didn't know." She shifted her gaze to Regina. "I told you the truth about that."

Regina said, "How did he find out about Henry?"

"We'll get to that, but it's a ways down the line." Emma turned back to Henry. "What I didn't know until Yesterday, is that the reason your father abandoned me has to do with all the stuff we've been dealing with, Fairy Tale Land and," turning to look at Regina again, "the Curse."

"What does the Curse have to do with my father? And how did you find out all this Yesterday." Henry suddenly stopped. Emma realized that Henry was starting to connect the dots. She knew Regina was already there.

Henry said, finally, "You said Neal treated you badly and my father treated you badly and," he rushed on, "you found all this out Yesterday. So, so. ..."

Emma found she couldn't speak, but to her great surprise Regina did it for her. "Emma is trying to tell you Henry that Neal is your father."

Emma couldn't believe it, but she was crying. She was mortified, again. But again to her surprise, Regina said, "It's alright, Emma. Go ahead and cry." To Henry Regina said, "Henry, don't be upset. Emma learned a lot of distressing things Yesterday. Anyone would cry after that. Emma has been trying to be so brave for you."

Despite her tears, Emma was astonished. She never in a million years would have expected empathy from Regina.

After some time Henry said in a quiet voice. "What did you learn about my fa..., about Neal that had to do with the Curse?"

Emma said, "I am going to let him explain that to you. I'm not sure that I could actually make sense out of it. It is the most bizarre thing of all."

As if on cue, the doorbell rang. Emma started to get up but Regina said, "I'll get this. It's my house after all."

She returned shortly with Neal. Regina said, "Henry, this is Neal Cassidy, your father."

Neal said, "Hi, kid." To Emma, "Are you alright."

Henry didn't say anything, but Emma said, "I've been crying." Regina who had sat again astonished Emma for the third time by placing a hand on her arm.

Neal seemed not to know what to do, but Regina said, "Henry wants to know why you abandoned Emma, and what is this connection you have to our world."

Neal took the remaining seat, and began his story. "When I was just a little older than you are now, our land was in trouble. Our duke was at war with the Ogres. Do you know what an Ogre is?" Henry nodded and said, "Emma saw one over there."

_Up close and personal_. But Emma kept quiet so Neal could continue. "The war was so bad, that the duke made all children, girls and boys, go to fight just as soon as they were fourteen years old." Emma could see that Henry was doing the calculation. "My father was a kind and gentle man. He had a limp as a result of his fighting in the war years before. People said he was a coward and had run from the battlefield, but I didn't care. He was Papa, and I loved him just the way he was.

"In Papa's fear and determination to keep me from the war, he did a terrible thing."

As Emma listened to Neal, _no Baelfire_, recount his tale for the second time, she was again struck by how horrible it had to have been. Henry was rapt in his attention to Neal. It was a fairy tale story, which by itself would have fascinated him, but this one concerned Henry personally.

Emma saw that Regina was just as enthralled. Emma knew that Regina had not created the Curse, although she had cast it. Rumpelstiltskin created the Curse. Emma now knew why, and she saw that Regina was finally understanding why he had created it. Emma knew that Regina was going to be disgusted by the way Rumpelstiltskin had manipulated her.

When Neal got to the present day, Henry lost his somber look. "So I was sleeping in the backseat of this cool car that I had just stolen, when I woke up to the car moving. There was this really cute girl in the driver's seat. She had used a screwdriver and a rock to start the car. I decided to see how she would react, and I just sat up suddenly, held out the keys, and said, 'Impressive. But you could just have asked for these.' She almost had a heart attack." Neal paused briefly. "And that, Henry, is how I met you mother!"

Everyone laughed at this. Neal had a kind of comic timing. But, then Neal continued more somberly, relating the story. Eventually he got to the tricky part. "So Emma went into the bus station, and came out with the watches. I knew where I could get twenty thousand dollars for them. I left to go to the fence, and we agreed when and where to meet. She kissed me and I left." Neal looked down at the floor. "Until Yesterday that was the last time I saw you mother." When Neal looked up, Emma saw that his eyes were bright with unshed tears.

Neal took a deep breath. "A guy started chasing me. I thought it was a cop. He tackled me. The he told me he wasn't a cop, and that he was there for Emma.

"That stopped me cold. Emma had told me she was an abandoned infant. She had nobody. Why would this guy even know her?"

Both Henry and Regina seemed really confused. Neal went on. "He told me he had been in the same foster home as Emma, that he was supposed to be some kind of 'guardian angel' for her. 'You're doing a crap job' I told him. I thought this guy was nuts. He said he had spent the last two years finding Emma. It still didn't make sense, but, then, he showed me something. Something in a wooden box that he had on the back of his motorcycle." Henry's eyes widened and Emma knew he was thinking August.

When Neal hesitated, Emma said, "Henry, that guy was August." Both Henry and Regina looked completely surprised. Regina just said, "August?" Henry said to her, "Mom, August is really Pinocchio." Regina looked even more confused, but apparently decided that her questions could wait.

"What this guy showed me was something that told me he knew I was Baelfire. Then, I had no choice but to believe the rest of the things he told me. About the Curse and the rest. I agreed with him that I had to leave Emma. You see, we were really happy. We were going to go live in Tallahassee, get jobs, start a regular life, … start a family." Henry reddened as he understood what Neal was saying. "This guy said that Emma would not break the Curse, would not 'fulfill her destiny' if we did that. So I agreed to do what he wanted. I abandoned Emma, and worse, I tipped off the cops that she had gotten the stolen watches from the bus station." Neal was crying now. "Emma got eleven months for receiving stolen goods. She had you while she was in jail. I didn't know about you. I don't know if this August knew, but I intend to find out.

"But I will tell you this, Henry. I have hated myself since that night. I have thought about it everyday, and have always wanted to go back and do it differently." Neal paused for some time. "It's funny. I'm just like Papa. I did something I regretted and all I can think about is going back and finding some other way."

Tears were streaming down Emma's face. Henry looked like he would cry, and Regina, even, looked moved.

Finally Henry asked, "But why didn't you just go away with Emma and forget all the Curse stuff? I get why Emma would want to break the Curse, although she would never have believed in it. I don't understand why you would give all your happiness up to help these people in Storybrooke. The only person you knew here was Mr. Gold, your father. You and Emma could have gone to Canada and had regular lives. Emma never would have known or cared about the Curse. And, I would have been with you both. You were pregnant with me already, right?" Emma didn't speak.

Baelfire replied, "But Henry, the Curse was all about me. I was responsible for the misery all these people were in. Papa did all that he did to get to where I had gone, here. For three hundred years he manipulated, schemed, even murdered, so he could find me. The only thing I could do was to help Emma fulfill her destiny – a destiny he had arranged. So I betrayed her, and made sure she would never want to find me, and eventually she would break his Curse!

"My happiness was irrelevant, and I decided that Emma's happiness had to be subverted for this 'destiny.' It was a horrid thing to do to her, and not a day goes by that I'm not haunted by it, but I had to do it, to make amends for the misery I had brought to an entire world. Even if I had known about you, Henry, I still would have done it. I couldn't escape my responsibility for what my Papa did."

No one said anything for a long time. Then Emma spoke, "What's done is done, Neal. Nobody benefits from obsessing on it. Anything that's broken we can try to fix. All we can really ask is that people accept their responsibility for whatever they have done, and that they try to be better people. I forgive you for betraying me. I'm not saying that it didn't hurt, and it will be something between us probably forever, but we can't let it determine our actions for the rest of our lives.

"And I think you need to forgive you father, also." She put up her hand to stop Neal from interrupting. "He's done terrible things, but he is your father still, and Henry's grandfather. Henry has the right to have him in his life. He is still the Dark One, and we can't forget that. But being the Dark One is a curse, right?" She looked at Regina who nodded. "Every curse can be broken. We just have to break that curse."

Emma looked at them all, Henry's immediate family. She said, "Everyone in this room wants the same thing, for Henry to have his best chance at life. So we have to work it out no matter what problems we encounter."

Emma was pleased to see on their faces that they all agreed.

Epilog

Gold heard his front door open. He scowled. _Nobody can read signs in this blasted town. It says CLOSED_. But his sarcastic greeting died in his throat when he saw that Henry was the interloper.

"Hello Henry. You aren't here by yourself, are you."

"Yes, I am."

"Henry it's not safe for you on your own. Haven't they told you that Cora is somewhere around Storybrooke?"

"Aw, it's just a little ways from Grams apartment to here. And you'll protect me now, won't you?" Henry paused for only a bit and added, "Grandfather."

Tears came to Rumpelstiltskin's eyes and he replied, "Yes, yes, I'll protect you."

Henry rushed over and hugged him, awkwardly as usual.


End file.
